STUPOR NOVA: Ivan Nova makes the long walk to the dugout after being pulled from the game in the seventh inning of the Yankees’ 3-2 loss to the A’s last night.Getty Images

Maybe his historic, marathon no-hitter has nothing to do with what’s happening to Johan Santana now. Or maybe he and manager Terry Collins are paying the price, just as Collins feared on June 1, for letting the lefty throw 134 pitches to give Mets fans a memorable thrill.

Definitely, though, that doesn’t matter now.

The Mets’ biggest question today is not how they got here with Santana. It’s where they go from here with him, and whether they possibly can salvage this heretofore inspirational season.

The left-hander lasted just three innings, getting shelled for six runs, and the Mets (47-46) wound up losing the Dodgers at Citi Field, 7-6, for their seventh loss in eight games and sixth in seven since the All-Star break.

Santana has a 3-5 record and a ghastly 6.54 ERA in eight starts (totaling 42 2/3 innings) since the no-hitter, and following the game, Collins spoke of “alternatives” and “options,” one of which is putting Santana on the disabled list today.

“I’ve been through a lot,” said Santana, who maintained a stoic exterior during his postgame interview. “I’m very happy that I’m able to take the mound every five games after everything I’ve been through. Every time that I’m out there, I try to do my best, and I enjoy it. It’s just that right now, it’s not working for me.”

There’s your problem, your explanation why you can’t just shrug this off as a great pitcher hitting a bad stretch. In coming back from significant left shoulder surgery in September 2010 to repair the tear of his anterior capsule, Santana is in unchartered territory. Most pitchers who have undergone this, with Chien-Ming Wang and Mark Prior the biggest names, never reached the heights Santana already has since the start of this season.

That’s why Collins was so nervous about letting Santana throw so many pitches for the no-hitter and why he appeared quite concerned after the game.

“His fastball was what it’s been,” Collins said. “He was pitching 88 [mph]. But it’s a command issue. This guy has spent a whole career with tremendous command of his stuff. He’s not making the pitches he has to make.”

Before the game, Collins said the Mets already were down two starting pitchers, with Dillon Gee and Mike Pelfrey both very likely out for the season. To maintain what they accomplished in the first half, they needed Santana to at least approach his superb performance.

Now that seems quite unlikely, which significantly decreases the probability of the Mets being able to at least sit on the periphery of the pennant race — something the organization and its fan base require desperately for everyone’s mental health.

“We have to keep it going,” Collins said. “Or else it’ll be, ‘Yeah, well, we thought this was going to happen. It’s almost like every time we have a bad stretch, everyone’s saying, ‘OK, here it is. We told you so.’

“We want to avoid that. We want to avoid that so that our fans are still proud to come out and watch us play.”

The Mets have regressed in the second half of four of their prior five seasons, the one exception being 2008 — which concluded with them blowing 3 1/2-game National League East and NL wild-card leads in the final 17 games.

Some setbacks are more understandable than others. Last year, most notably, the Mets predictably fell apart after trading Carlos Beltran to San Francisco and Francisco Rodriguez to Milwaukee. In 2009, they were ravaged by injuries, though their medical culture also deservedly came under scrutiny.

“Of course you want to go out there and play well,” David Wright said. “It would be great. The last couple of years, we haven’t really been in contention. So it would be great to be a part of a playoff push, be a part of that race again. You live for that. That’s what it’s all about.

The problem with a bad second half, of course, is that it leaves a bad taste for the winter, when teams sell tickets with no games to change the conversation.

Santana’s June 1 gem produced considerable goodwill for the fan base, yet those folks have short memories. They want to have their no-hitter and eat it, too. Unfortunately for them, Santana looks cooked.